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HiT Entertainment
HIT Entertainment Ltd. (styled "HiT") is a British-American entertainment company owned by Mattel and originally established in 1982 as Henson International Television (formerly styled "hit!"). It was founded as the international distribution arm of Jim Henson Productions. HIT owns and distributes children's television series. Along with PBS, Sesame Workshop, and Comcast, HiT was one of the four founders of PBS Kids Sprout. History with Sprout 2005-2017 On October 20, 2004, the company announced its launching of PBS Kids Sprout with partners PBS, Comcast, and Sesame Workshop. The channel launched on September 26, 2005. Several HiT Entertainment shows aired on Sprout such as Fireman Sam. When Apax Partners sold HIT Entertainment to Mattel on October 24, 2011, HIT's ownership interest in Sprout was not included in the deal and was retained by Apax Partners. In 2012, Sesame Workshop sold its interest in Sprout to NBCUniversal, which in turn later acquired Apax and PBS's shares in the network on March 19, 2013 and November 13, 2013 respectively, thus giving Comcast full ownership. On Sprout's 10th anniversary on September 26, 2015, the network received a brand refresh and shifted focus towards original shows, such as Nina's World, and phased out older acquired shows such as Barney & Friends (which later returned to the network in 2018) and Thomas & Friends (both of which were owned by PBS and HiT) due to the network's licenses for these shows expiring. 2018-present In an effort to revive ratings and to appeal to nostalgia, Universal Kids started airing HiT's series Barney & Friends ''on December 17, 2018. Barney was supposed to air for one week only, but due to the massive ratings success, it became part of the regular lineup. This did not come without challenges though; due to Universal Kids mostly airing episodes from seasons 10 and 11 (which used a format of airing 2 11-minute segments per half hour, in contrast to other seasons, which had full half-hour episodes), many scenes had to be edited and/or cut to make room for commercials. This makes the plot confusing for younger viewers, as seasons 10-12 were very plot-heavy and conflict-driven in comparison to the earlier seasons. Season 12 episodes also suffered edits, although it uses the standard 30-minute episode format. On the other hand, with the 11-minute format of Seasons 10 and 11, the commercials fit smack-dab in the middle of the two episodes. Following the success of ''Barney, Universal Kids premiered fellow HiT show Bob the Builder on April 22, 2019. Both the original stop-motion episodes and "Ready, Steady, Build!" air. It is unknown if other HiT shows will make a return to the schedule. However, both Barney and Bob were removed from the schedule in July of 2019. The reason for this is unknown. Bob came back in August of 2019, though, and Barney came back in September. HiT Entertainment Programs Broadcast By Sprout With PBS *Angelina Ballerina **Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps *Barney & Friends *Bob the Builder *Thomas & Friends Others *Archibald the Koala *Brambly Hedge *Kipper *Percy the Park Keeper *Rubbadubbers *Fireman Sam *Fifi and the Flowertots *James the Cat *Pingu *Roary the Racing Car *The Wiggles Category:Companies